Requiescat In Pace

Gentle Readers, I took a brief break to tend to some other matters and I am saddened that this has to be my return post. As almost everyone probably knows, Heath Ledger was found dead in his apartment in New York yesterday afternoon, Tuesday, January 22 2008. He was 28 years old.

I first learned that Mr. Ledger had died when my sister-in-law called me and told me that she had heard of his passing on the news. At first I was shocked and I don't think I really believed her. When I checked the news on-line, that shock began to mix with sadness. Heath Ledger was a promising actor who made some brave choices in the roles he took. He always made his characters believable and one never got a sense that he was acting. He seemed to become the character so that you forgot that you were watching Heath Ledger. He had completed filming his role as the Joker in the upcoming Dark Knight which promises to be huge.

As a gay man, I respected Mr. Ledger's decision to play Ennis del Mar in Brokeback Mountain. He took a role, which I'm sure many advised him not to take, and created a character that was real. A man trapped between who he was and what the rest of the world expected him to be. Mr. Ledger created a layered, 3 dimensional character and for that I commend him. He showed great courage as well as great acting in his performance. Heath Ledger was an actor. Unlike, narrow-minded, idiots like Mark Wahlberg, who when offered the role, only saw that he'd have to kiss another man. God forbid his "manhood" be called into question by playing a fag.

It is a sad occasion when one so young is taken. People in the prime of life are not supposed to be struck down. Perhaps, there is some comfort in knowing that we will always have Mr. Ledger's all too brief but no less impressive body of work. However, it will also serve as a reminder of what may have been; the promise that was lost.